And So It Begins
by alinova
Summary: Before The Outbreak, Faith had everything - a husband, a baby... a lover. But just having everything doesn't mean you're happy, and as things take a turn for the worse, Faith finds herself running from the arms of one Mad King and right into the arms of another. She's done her best to avoid him, but now he's at the gates of Alexandria and there's no escaping him.
1. Chapter 1: Ready Or Not, Here I Am

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

 **Hi, hello. It's me, Alistair. Okay, so I know I started this story already, and you may have noticed that I deleted it. There were a few reasons for that. Firstly, I started the damn thing with the overly ambitious intention of writing the first thing in third person and _present_ tense, which is something I am far than used to writing with. As it turns out, while I think the first chapter or so turned out pretty okay... anything else I tried to write for it was honestly just trash. Absolute trash. Anyway, so I'm back to writing in my usual, comfortable style, and I have better ideas for my story this time around. Sorry for the confusion or whatever else, but here the story finally is. I hope you enjoy this shit. Comments and everything else are always appreciated.**

* * *

Negan was not a motherfucker who believed in fate. Even if he did, that shit never did it's part in making people believe in it. So why should he? Why should Negan be one of those pansy ass idealist believers who put all their faith in a bullshit concept like _fate_?

He shouldn't. That was the answer.

But still, that didn't stop his mind briefly considering it when he rolled up to Alexandria for the first time, and _just_ after some bullshit pretence of ignorance at the gates, found a familiar fucking face in a crowd of assholes. It was practically _impossible_ for her to be there, and in one piece. Because her living room had been painted with blood. Because her bedroom had been painted with blood. Because every room in her house had been painted with fucking blood in one capacity or another. All of her shit had been gone - and obviously Negan had _assumed_ petty fucking thieves had plundered their way through. So, yeah, there was no fucking way Faith Tindall was actually standing there, fine and fucking dandy in the midday Georgia sun. Except she was, and even with _all_ the shit Negan had seen in his time... this was some _next level shit_. She looked a little rougher than before, but that shit was a given, and she had some battle scars, but that was just the crap that was _visible_ to him from as far a distance as there was between them. Some-fucking-how, though, her hair was still glorious and golden and it didn't even look fucking dirty. Her skin was still stubbornly pale even in a fucking climate like this, and the woman was fucking _smiling_ at someone next to her, and laughing, and-

Holy shit. Holy _shit_. _Holy shit._

How the fuck?

Negan didn't care _how the fuck_ , actually. He cared _who the fuck_ , and who the fuck happened to be standing there like the world had never fucking ended, like dead fuckers weren't ambling around outside hungry for human flesh, and like she'd never even heard he was alive and kicking. But if she was here, then how the _fuck_ had she _not_ known? Unless Rick was keeping secrets from his people... which was not a part of the fucking deal. He rounded on the man now, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"That asshole at the gate... he better be the one and _only_ around here who doesn't know who the fuck I am."

He watched for a reaction to that, and found himself pleased enough to let out a nice big grin when Rick the motherfucker ducked his head in submission. Really, though, it was like talking to Caspar the timid fucking ghost.

"Hey, Rick..." he drifted closer, eyes trained on taking in every shift in Rick's facial features, "remember when you told me you were gonna kill me? What did you say-? 'Not today, not tomorrow', or some shit? _Fuck_ , that was fun. Where's your spine gone, Rick? Your _backbone_. Did it slide right out of your ass when you shit yourself?"

Rick just shook his head, eyes on the ground. Negan stayed where he was for a minute, just absorbing the shameful fucking discomfort and hatred Rick was exuding. He had shit to do, though, so eventually he swung himself back, laughing at the other man's expense. That's what he did. That shit was practically his _job_.

But back to Faith. And that's where his attention went, eyes sliding their way over the crowd, doing a halfhearted job of memorising faces, and trying to match them to names. But she was fucking impossible to miss, even surrounded by a shit ton of people, and what was even fucking worse was that she'd seen him by now, and was doing some sort of rabbit caught in fucking headlights impression.

"Well kneel me on the ground, slug a baseball bat over my head and call me _Rick's friends!_ " He proclaimed, a knowing grin on his face as he sauntered closer to her, homing in with his arms spread out either side of him. Lucille hung from his right hand, attracting just as much attention as he was. _That's his girl_. He raised a single, almost mocking eyebrow at Faith, lowering Lucille to the ground as he did so, providing him with something to lean on. "What, you haven't got _shit to say_ , Faith? Our fairytale fucking reunion and you don't have anything to say to me?"

It was obvious she was in a state of shock, eyes still wide and lips parted, her tongue darting out to wet them as she tried to think of something to say. Negan was a patient fucking _gentleman_ of a man, and so he stood there, with his eyebrows raised, and waited.

"I knew I should have kept walking."

Negan blinked, eyebrows somehow raising even fucking higher. _Kept walking?_ He looked around them, wondering if he'd heard her right.

" _Excuse_ me?"

"I got here yesterday, and now you're here. Today."

"Oh, _no_ , honey... you're avoiding _me?_ Me, Faith? Negan? _How_ the fuck, _why_ the fuck, and _what_ the fuck would you be doing _that_ for?" He'd placed a hand to his chest, above his heart, as if that shit really wounded him.

She sighed, bowing her head, a hand going to her forehead as if she had a headache. A fucking _headache_. It was clear who was meant to be the cause of _that_ fucker. Negan bristled, swinging Lucille up from the ground and onto his shoulder, sidling closer.

"Now _that_ , is a pretty stupid fucking endeavour. And by association, Faith, that makes _you_ pretty fucking stupid."

"I know." The way she spoke, he finally noticed, implied that she was just tired. That she didn't have any fight left. That she was just constantly apologetic and _sorry_.

"Bullshit."

"What?"

"That shit is _not_ good enough. I ever teach you to just _let_ someone talk to you like that?"

"No."

" _No._ Fucking exactly. So what the fuck is this?"

"I don't want to do this, Negan. Please just pretend I'm not here and do what you came to do."

Now _that_ one _really_ knocked the wind out of his fucking sails. If he remembered correctly, Faith Tindall had been his mistress. Not only _that_ , but the _only_ fucking mistress he'd kept around. The only woman he'd ever goddamn _encountered_ that ever came anywhere near Lucille in his eyes. Faith was the second woman he'd ever loved in his life, but there was only one he would admit to. And she was dead. So, as Negan fucking understood it, _his mistress_ , whom he could have sworn up and down to the Devil himself was long dead, who Negan had actually left Lucille's corpse at the fucking _hospital_ to go look for when the shit hit the fan... wanted abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do with him.

Damn. Right. Well, her wish could and would be his fucking command.

He gave a taunting half bow, gaze trained bitterly and resolutely on her face. "As you fucking wish."

Negan went through the usual shit, going through the standard fucking motions for the _stand and deliver_ day, as he liked to call it. Usually, it was his favourite fucking day. He got to rock up, check the place out, take an absolute shit ton of gear with him, and parade around like a fucking King while it all went down. But now, see, _now_ , because of the shitshow of a conversation he'd had at the gates, he couldn't fucking enjoy it. There was this constant blur of gold in his fucking peripherals, and the whole fucking time he could think of nothing but _all_ _the fucking questions he had to ask her_.

It was like someone had ruined Negan's Christmas, and Negan fucking _loved_ Christmas, so as was imagined, he was pretty fucking pissed about it all.

Which was why, when everything was packed up nice and tidy in the trucks and ready to fucking go, he strode up to Rick, and said:

"I've got 49% of shit in those trucks, but 49 just isn't 50, is it, Rick? So I'm gonna take my final fucking 1%."

And scooped Faith up and tossed her over his other shoulder, mirroring the stance he'd taken with Lucille, and continued his route to the trucks just like he had been before. "I'll see you assholes next week. As for now? Ta-ta."

 **AN: Yo, super sorry for putting a second author's note in this chapter, but much like my muses, I have shit to say. This, of course, serves as an introductory chapter and does not, as such, represent the way the rest of the fic is going to be. Yes, I will be writing Negan a lot like this, and yes, there will be lots of focus on Negan and Faith's relationship. HOWEVER, that is not what the entire fic is about. As is true with real life, there are so many other people involved in this story, and so many characters to introduce and mess around with. This fic will not be revolving _entirely_ around Negan and Faith. It will be told mostly from Faith's perspective, and will have her spending realistic amounts of time alone, with other people, and with her own thoughts. It's realistic for that to be the case. With so many great characters in The Walking Dead, it would be doing you and them an injustice if I didn't include them or spend time getting to know them at all. So please enjoy the story, comment and do whatever else you feel like doing. I'll update as regularly as I can. _As for now? Ta-ta._**


	2. Chapter 2: Home, But Just For A Second

The truck rumbled and seemed to hit every single bump in the road as it went along. As embarrassing as it was for Negan to have done what he did, at least she was sat up front with the man himself and not in the back with everything they'd taken from Alexandria. Every now and then there would be a bump in the road hit fast enough that Faith would be thrown up out of her seat. If not for the seatbelt, she would have been right through the windshield multiple times.

"Can you slow down?" She asked, rubbing at her temples to try and keep the headache at bay - the one she'd felt developing all day.

"The fuck kind of a question is that? You see any little shapes stuck on sticks with numbers on along the road? Fuck no! You see any flashin' lights? Hear any sirens, sweetheart? _Fuck. No."_

Faith sighed, attempting to lean up against the window, but quickly realised what a bad idea that would be, and retracted herself just before they hit another protrusion in the ground. "I hope you didn't take any vases."

" _Vases?_ What kind of a dumb motherfucker keeps a _vase_ around when _these_ assholes are out lookin' to take a chunk out of a fucking face?" He gestured almost calmly to a walker on the road directly ahead of them. Faith let her head drop back and hit the seat. He was even more arrogant than he had been _before_. The way he had been before The Outbreak, Faith wasn't sure _how_ he could become any more exaggerated, but here they were. Sure enough, they hit the walker with gusto and Negan actually cheered when it happened, his mood suddenly better than before. The splatter of blood covering a large portion of the windshield didn't seem to put him off, either, and he gladly accepted the challenge of driving with it there to obscure his field of view.

"Did you bury her?" Faith asked, abruptly, the question spilling out of her mouth the moment the thought came to mind. The last thing she _remembered_ , in fact, before everything went to hell, was receiving a phone call from Negan. She remembered _so well_ , because she'd never forget his voice on the other end, as distorted and tinny as the phone made it, there was no mistaking the devastation in it. Lucille was dead, after a deceptively uphill battle, a brief period during which she was as healthy and happy as she'd always been, and then a swiftly downhill regression... the love of Negan's life was dead. Faith had never met her, had never had the _pleasure_ , but only knew of the woman she'd been through the things Negan had told her. From what she knew she was rather similar to Faith herself - blonde, calm, sweet and warm - and if things had been different, Faith had no doubt that the two of them may have been friends.

Negan's hands tightened around the wheel, nostrils flaring ever so slightly. She knew him well enough to predict that his foot was inching towards the brake pedal, tempted to bring the truck to an abrupt, screeching stop and pull over to intimidate her into being quiet. He probably would have done if she were anyone else. But she was not, and so Negan kept driving.

"Fuck... no. Left her there to rot." His head fell into a slight, slow shake. "Fucking injustice."

Faith ducked her head in a nod, looking forward once again. "Well, I did."

This time, the truck _did_ come to a screeching stop. "Fucking- _what_?!"

Faith blinked at him, turning to look at him as if he'd asked her some inane question about the weather. "I buried Lucille."

Negan's mouth set in a grim line, face closing off to hostility. "Explain. Fucking explain."

"Well... I came to look for you."

"Fucking _whe_ -"

She interrupted, knowing if she didn't try to dominate the conversation she'd never get to tell the story. "I dug her grave with my hands. I made it deep enough to keep her safe." For once, Negan was silent. Faith took that as a sign to carry on, to get it over and done with while she was ahead, and while he was only listening, "She's not going to become just another meal. After everything she's gone through, she at least gets to rest in peace." Negan remained silent, but he frowned deeply, running his tongue over his teeth. He just stared at her. It was hard to remain still and patient, especially under the heat of Negan's steady gaze. Just when she thought he was going to speak, there was a knock on his window, to the left. Negan rolled the window down, fixing the Saviour who had knocked with a look that really did do an impressive job of communicating his displeasure.

"Everything okay, boss?"

Negan rested his elbow on the frame of the door, scratching at his beard as if he couldn't figure out the question. "Are you fucking implying that I couldn't beat a tiny blonde woman with no weapons on her in a fucking fight, asshole?"

"No, I-"

"You better fuckin' _hope_ not, kid. The fuck is your name? Jonas? Jason? You know, I don't really give a flying fuck. You're on maintenance now, you like that shit? Get out of my fucking face."

* * *

Once they'd started driving again, it didn't take much longer to get to wherever it was they were going. Faith knew better than to ask him _now_ to slow down, and he, in return, didn't speak at all. He simply drove, contemplating. She'd see him staring at her out of the corner of her eye, occasionally, but she never turned her head to check. Though she'd always been known as a nice and a _good_ and a warm person, she had never been known as someone who always told the truth. She supposed, now that she considered it, that it must have been quite a shock to him to have her be so brutally honest and without hesitation. And the truth of it was that she shocked herself, too. But it was exhausting to maintain secrets now, not after... _everything_.

Her hand drifted to her stomach, and she tried not to think about it.

* * *

The gates were monstrous, industrial things, definitely large and impressive enough to keep out the undead. She found herself craning her neck to try and get a glimpse of the building, but couldn't until she was outside of the cab of the truck and away from the restricted field of view it had provided.

"Welcome to The Sanctuary, sweetheart. _Open the fucking gates! I'm not here to stand around with my dick out, staring at the fucking gates all fucking day!"_

Faith sighed once again, a signature sign of her patience wearing thin - and a sign she was sure Negan was very familiar with. He clucked at her, patting her cheek, "Oh, shit! You know what I just fucking _remembered?_ " She averted her attention down towards her shoes, trying to ignore how close he'd suddenly gotten. "You never _did_ tell me what your fucking husband's name was! And I reckon, quite fuckin' frankly, that if there's gonna be _any_ right time for you to let me fucking know... it's gotta be now."

"Why do you _need_ to know?" Faith answered rather curtly, which was uncharacteristic enough to cause a reaction of surprise from Negan.

"Well... I figure... he's nowhere about, is he?" Negan gave a dramatic performance of looking around for Faith's husband. She curled her arms around herself tight, her nails digging into her palms. " _So, Faith..._ tell me his fucking _name_."

"Actually, I think you've met him."

It was bittersweet to admit that Negan's reaction granted her some satisfaction. She raised her head, finally, and tilted it, meeting his eyes with a renewed, yet meagre, level of confidence.

"Oh, yeah? Damn, woman, you always knew how to give me _blue balls_. Lemme go ahead and fucking guess. Rick?"

"No."

"Gotta admit I'm a little fucking disappointed. That would have been _fucking glorious_ , wouldn't it? _Shit. Damn._ Okay, sweetheart. Uh... fuckin'... who's that fuckin' ninja asshole? What was his fucking name? Some next level crazy shit. I'm talkin'...you've got your normal fucking names and then you got names like _Negan_ and _then_ there are people walking around calling themselves _this_ shit. Biblical. _Jesus_."

"No."

He was getting impatient now, not so willing to play along with the game of his own invention. "Well, fuck, then. Who? Which asshole that I fucking know of is your goddamn shitbag of a husband?"

Faith just stared at him for a moment or two longer, steeling herself to give the answer and to accept the consequences of doing so. "He thinks he's a King... has a thing for tigers and archery and gardening. Name begins with an E."

"You're not _fucking-_ "

"Ezekiel. His name is Ezekiel. You finally have your answer. So, now, can we please go inside?"

But Negan was grinning, now, though there was some sort of jealous heat in his eyes. Faith opened her mouth to protest, wary of whatever plan he had brewing now that he knew, but was caught off almost immediately by the man himself. "Did you ever fucking tell him?"

"... No."

" _No? Fuck_ , Faith! I knew your sweet ass was bad at lying, but this takes _that_ bullshit to another, more complex level of the same bullshit! Why the fuck _not_? You that ashamed of it, Faith? Think he'll set his fucking pussycat of a _tiger_ on me?"

"Because he's lost enough, and he's mad enough. _This_ could send him right off the edge. I'm not going to risk-"

Negan laughed that big, booming, obnoxious laugh of his and let the upper half of his body fall back with the motion. " _Oh, fuck no!_ Oh, Faith, sweetheart. _Shit,_ are you wrong! Fuck that! We're off now! Let's go see King Zeke. Come on, _mistress_ , plop that ass of yours down and get it ready to spill some more of that motherfuckin' truth bullshit you've got bubbling up inside you. I bet that tiger misses it's _mama!"_

* * *

 **AN: Another shitty chapter, whoop-dee-doo! Sorry for the shit you just read. I'll admit it's probably not my best, but I have some plot points I need to get out there before I can progress properly with the story. Anyways, it is what it is and it's out there. Enjoy it if you can, and I'll see you for the next one.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Worst Of Her Sins

The journey was awful, the ride bumpier (she was sure) than before. But maybe she was just sensitive because she was so on edge. Negan was really going to force her to do this. He was going to tell him. Ezekiel. She'd loved him once - a long time ago - at the beginning of their marriage when he was home and affectionate and... _present_. It all came crashing down the moment he got the job with the zoo. He became obsessed with it; all consumed with his role with Shiva. A month or so into their marriage she stopped waiting for him to come home. She left his dinner out for him and went to bed, never bothering to stay up waiting for him anymore. Faith never saw him anymore. That was her rationale for her infidelity.

Around the time Zeke started spending all his time at the zoo, Faith started work at a new high school - guidance counsellor - school therapist. She was a psychiatrist, and a pretty good one. At the beginning, she even told herself she had the fortitude to wait for Ezekiel to come back to her, to care about her again the way he did his job. But then she'd met Negan, and it was all over. There was no hope in hell for her marriage after that. He'd smiled and said hello and, just like that, she was his. It was as simple as that.

She looked at him now - at the sadistic glee in his expression - and saw there was no hope for either of them. They were already living in the Hell they'd been destined for the moment they said hello.

"Negan," Faith tried, "you don't have-"

"Can't face the time, don't do the fucking crime, baby."

It was useless. They were almost there, anyway. Mere minutes away from ruining the life of a man who had already lost it all. She truly despised herself in that moment, as they rounded the corner of the dirt road, and came to a menacing standstill outside the gates of The Kingdom. It felt like only yesterday she had left in the middle of the night, leaving it all behind her. She should have known something would have dragged her back; she just didn't expect it to be Negan.

"I can't do this."

Negan, who had been about to stroll off, turned to regard her stock still position by her side of the car, and laughed. Uproariously. It was an act, though, she knew because she knew him too well to believe it was anything but. The evidence was all over him - he was tensed like a coil - eyes slightly too bright and intense to be genuinely amused. It was a hollow laugh. It was meant to mock.

" _Can't?_ The fuck do you mean _'can't'?_ Sweetheart, you and I have done this man a very grievous fucking wrong and we are damn fucking well on our way to enlighten his tiger loving ass. Capeche? You get that? Understand me, now, Faith. _Get this._ For once, listen to what I am fucking saying to you. Take it in, let that fucker soak, and then accept that shit. Today is Truth Day, baby! Today is _judgement_ day - today is... bring your... fucking... dirty ass laundry, your deepest fucking secret to work day. We're fuckin' doing this. You don't get to weasel the fuck out. We were two consenting grown ups who had a..."

He trailed off, never finishing his sentence. Was he _serious?_ He couldn't qualify it as a relationship?

"Are you..." Faith watched him, watched the way he sweated, the way he looked anywhere but at her. Oh, hell. "Are you serious, Negan? Is that what it was to you? A dot dot dot? Are you _serious?"_ She was scared - guilt ridden - before, but, boy, was she mad now. Whatever it was that had happened between them wasn't just a fling, or a few sexual encounters. It was what she considered to be a fully fledged relationship, spanning the course of _years_. Faith had loved him. More than she had ever loved Ezekiel, more than anything. She had _loved_ Negan. She probably still did.

Her mouth was dry. He didn't think it was a relationship. He couldn't say it. What did that mean?

But the events of the day were only just beginning.

"Negan," an all too familiar voice called with oblivious grandeur from the front gates. "'Tis only three days passed since our last trade... what is the meaning of your sudden visit?"

They both froze, Negan for only a moment, before venturing round to the front of the truck. He swung Lucille like the _asshole_ he was - a lighter, quieter version of his whistle soaring from his lips. _Oh, Lucille. I'm so sorry._ But she couldn't spare another wayward thought for the dead, because Faith needed to focus so completely on the precarious situation in her present. Ezekiel wasn't able to see her from where he stood, not when she was hidden behind the truck the way that she was - but Negan wouldn't allow her to stay tucked away there forever - so she wanted to reveal herself _and_ her betrayal on her own terms.

Oh, she was so naive.

"Zekey, boy. Oh, _boy_ , do I have a surprise for you! I think you'll fucking like this, but only for a god damn second. Now, I didn't have time to stop for a fucking bow, or shit like that, but-"

Faith felt sick to her stomach. She had _never_ been so afraid of anything and so hateful of herself before in her life. It rendered her a trembling wreck, stuck to the spot like someone had taken the time to superglue her there. It was no use and she wasn't at all religious, but she sent a prayer upwards. This had to go as well as it could. Everybody needed to survive this. Ezekiel needed to take this as well as he possibly good. He needed to be okay after this. Faith wasn't in love with him, but she did love him. He had been a very important person in her life. She couldn't be the reason he went off the deep end. She couldn't handle the guilt of Zeke's fractured mind and tortured soul if this went badly. She knew she didn't deserve a good outcome - not for the things she had done - but she hoped whatever or whoever might be out there was benevolent enough to take care of the people she'd hurt. That they, or it, might heal what she had broken. Zeke deserved so much better than this, he deserved better than it being Negan.

It was the love and respect she held for her estranged husband that gave her the strength to step out from behind the vehicle - depriving Negan of his dramatic reveal. Instantaneously, as if she had set off a firework, all eyes fell on her. Ezekiel's facade dropped, as did his entire expression, his grandiose posture. All of it. He lowered everything, forced smiling vanishing from his features.

"Please, do not harm my wife." There was such tender desperation in his voice that it threatened to break her. But she couldn't fall apart here - she didn't deserve to.

Negan, on the other hand, tipped his head back and _laughed_. It was arrogant and ironic and cruel, and every inch of him exuded the perceived sense of victory he carried within himself. It was dark and unattractive, and Faith longed to just take back every second she had spent with him. But she couldn't. That was why they were here.

"Oh, shit, Faith - you do not deserve this poor asshole. Look at his fucking face! Look at that shit. He really thinks I'm gonna bash your golden head in, right here, right fucking now. _Damn._ What a man! What. A. Man. Mm. Glorious." Negan was gesturing towards her and looking at her, but she ignored him, scowling at the dirt. She hated him. "But no, Zekey. Fortunately fucking not. Though! You might just fucking wish I had, in a damn second!" He was _grinning_ , taking such obvious pleasure in the build up to tearing a good man's life apart.

"Zeke, I'm so sorry. Zeke, I-"

"You see this golden headed fucking wonder right here, _Your Majesty?"_

He was mocking him. He had no right to-

"Faith?" Ezekiel called out to her, apprehension bleeding through his tone. He had to have figured it out. Surely. Maybe he thought she had betrayed the Kingdom? Maybe he suspected she had changed sides or been caught running away, or something. He didn't look angry, only scared. God, he didn't deserve this.

"I'm so sorry," was all she could say, head hung in shame, arms encircled around her trembling frame. Negan was intent on dealing the final blow. If she didn't give it to him, Faith knew he would only try to do worse. He was Negan. The Big Bad Wolf. He had to have the last word, he had to be the one to say the worst possible thing. He was attention hungry, and he always had been. She just didn't think him to be so cruel. But, she supposed she should have known, with the way people had been reacting to him all day. It was typical Faith. She lived her life in a state of blind denial, willing herself to ignore the harsh reality. Faith was a coward, plain and simple. She couldn't let Negan be the one to deliver this admission.

"Get a load of _this_ shit right here, your Hi-"

"I had an affair!" It was as if she'd fired a gun, the effect was so instantaneous and complete. Silence rang uncontested through the space in front of the Kingdom, and for that small, inconsequential pocket in time... it was only the three of them. Even Negan looked shocked, arm outstretched like he was unsure if he wanted to stop her talking or comfort her. Faith would have bet on the former - and with a soft whimper - she confessed the final and perhaps worst of her crimes. "Before. With him."

Ezekiel was...

It was like he wasn't there anymore. He'd checked out - to another universe or reality, perhaps - where none of this was happening. A place where his wife had not committed such a reprehensible act of betrayal and infidelity. The dead were still peaceful and buried in the ground, and his people had never had any need for his Kingly facade. They were safe and content and thriving. Nobody had lost anything or anyone, least of all himself and his Faith. Their son was alive. He was beautiful and intelligent and _happy_ , and-

Negan began to laugh. Great bellows of mirth left him like the most obnoxious fog horn in the history of existence, as he tipped his head back and gave in to the twisted humour he got from all of this.

" _Damn_ , girl. Colour me impressed! You actually told the fucking truth for once! Wow, Faith. And what the fuck did it take, huh? An actual apocalypse? _Me_ dragging your ungrateful, lying ass over to the doorstep and forcing this shit out of you?"

Faith was not someone to lose her patience easily - she never had been. But there was always _something_ about this man that made her lose her mind and her senses. So, not only had she come barrelling up to her estranged husband's 'Kingdom' - she was going to engage in a spat with her ex-lover right in front of him. "You can stop now. You get everything you wanted."

His smile turned dark, his entire expression and his posture turning downwards a little. "Oh, no. Not _everything_." He bared his teeth.

She wanted to smack him.

"Go back to your damn Sanctuary." That was not the voice of a King, but it was still Ezekiel. The _real_ Ezekiel. "I don't want to see you ever again." That was directly at her, and there was nothing she could do but accept it. Gravely, Ezekiel tugged his wedding band from his finger and tossed it into the dirt at her feet before he left. The gates shut with a great boom, and Faith was left with Negan, the ring, and her self hatred.

"Well, that went better than I fucking hoped. Shit. He didn't even get the damn tiger out."

Faith turned, and walked away from him.


End file.
